Desarrollo de Contenidos del Curso de Capacitación

problems and with the real world used that way, the mechanism may have adverse effect on mental health and emotional adjustment. It may result in hallucination and other gross emotional imbalance.

3.6 Frustration

Frustration is a feeling or experience a person has when he finds that he is unable to do or have something which he very much desires. But when the individual finds that he lacks the ability to do things which other people can do and which he feels he ought to be able to do, he experiences a feeling of inferiority. Feelings of frustration and inferiority are painful. They cannot always be avoided, but sometimes the difficulties which give rise to them can be prevented or removed. A frustrated farmer is difficult to be assisted. The extension worker must therefore make effort to assist in removing those factors which may lead the farmer into that state.

3. 6.1 Reactions to Frustration

There are several ways through which people react to frustration.

An extension worker once organised a competition for farmers in a community to choose the best farmer of the year through the display of their individual farm products. The person who would emerge as the best farmer would in addition receive farm inputs for the following year. Eventually the best farmer emerged and the others became frustrated.

Let us see the seven different ways in which seven different farmers reacted to their frustration.

The first farmer as a result of his frustration worked extra harder, adopting new technologies and practices and he did not only increase production but emerged as the best farmer the following year. His frustration has resulted in increased effort.

The second farmer became so discouraged that he lost interest in the competition. In this case his frustration has resulted in depression.

The third farmer did not allow depression but substituted his interest in the competition with something else, cutting fuel woods from which he makes a lot of money and with which he was able to buy more than the input that are normally given to the winner of the competition.

The fourth farmer in reaction to the frustration, and to be able to escape from the reality of the frustration, began to imagine how he wins the competition and was not only awarded the best farmer of the year but was recognised by the government and was given national award. In his own case he has resulted today dreaming.

The fifth farmer became angry and displays his anger by being rude to the extension worker who judged the competition. This man reacted to frustration by being aggressive.

The sixth farmer got home and showed his anger on his wife and children. He too, has allowed his frustration to result in aggression which he extended to those who were not involved in the competition.

The seventh farmer resulted to finger nail biting, vexed within himself and would not talk to anyone. He too has reacted to frustration but by being bitter to himself.

Severe frustration may, however, result into more serious reactions such as physical illness, mental illness (fugue) and in children, it may result to severe regression. Feeling of frustration may also be accompanied by a feeling of inferiority. Feelings of inferiority are caused by the fact that there is a gap between a person’s attainment and his ambitions. The more fulfilling his ambition, the more he will suffer from feelings of getting rid of their feelings of inferiority. One of these means is the use of defense mechanism which is a less satisfactory way of dealing with feelings of inferiority by trying to hide the weakness of which one feels ashamed or inferior. Among the lot, few of the types of defense mechanism are: boasting, belittling oneself, precautionary rationalising and identification and reversal formation.

(a) Boasting: Contrary to the false accusation that the person who boasts is feeling superior to others, the person who boast is the person who feels inferior and therefore tries to cover up his inferiority by boasting about the things he can do well. The extension worker must not take every boast from his clients as sign of superiority. He may actually be covering up some weakness.

(b) Belittling oneself: The contrast of boasting is belittling oneself. A person who belittles himself, in a way employs a defense mechanism. Instead of covering his weakness through self praise he gets others to praise him. He agrees he is a failure and tells others so, with the intention of making others to refuse it for him and praise him instead.

(c) Precautionary Rationalising: This takes place when an individual feels that an incoming event will reveal his weakness and therefore rationalise before that event takes place. An example is the farmer who knowing fully that he will fail in a competition, goes round to tell others that the exercise is a futile one, and that after all, the reason he farms is to feed his family. Also, he said that rain and pest affected his product. This farmer is making precautionary rationalising.

(d) Identification: Another way by which one defends himself against feelings of inferiority is through identification with someone who is successful. So when one identifies with someone or group, he feels a satisfaction which he could not gain by relying on his own effort alone.

(e) Reversal Formation: Reversal formation takes places when one develops an attitude which is contrary to the desire which has been repressed. For example, a farmer who felt ashamed after being sanctioned for passing uncomplimentary remarks on the extension worker may develop an over-protective attitude towards the extension agent after reporting the experience of the sanction.

3.7 Ways of Helping Farmers Suffering from Frustration

Firstly, the extension agent must recognise that the farmer is suffering from frustration and inferiority as we have discussed earlier. For instance one must not take the farmer belittling himself or boasting as being pleased with himself.

Secondly, after recognising the signs of frustration, the extension worker must identify the causes. If it is because the ambition is not achieved for instance, extension officer can re-orientates the farmers towards new ambition that will give equal satisfaction with the unachieved one.

Thirdly, the farmer should be encouraged to regard difficulties as challenges and that men are born to face challenges. They should be reminded that others before them and some in their position do face such difficulties and many do triumph.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Farmers like any other human beings are controlled and affected by emotions, and are faced with situations that bring about fear, anxiety and at times frustration. The Extension worker should note this and device means of coping or helping farmers to handle their emotional problems, remove fear and anxiety and adjusting to their situations in order to make success of extension activities.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, you have learnt that:

• emotion describes feelings such as love, hate, joy, sorrow, fear, hope, curiosity, wonder, pity, amusement

• there are four major theories of emotion. These are theories of creative impulse, emergency equipment, theory of emotional excitement and arousing stimuli

• emotions can affect our health, memory, reasoning,

surroundings, interpretation of situations, decision and actions as well as our sentiments

• fear and anxiety are emotions which play important role in human

motivation and might result from financial embarrassment, children’s rebellion, business failure, barrenness, isolation, polygamy, tragedy, insecurity etc. • farmers may react to frustration in so many ways

• extension agents must recognise when any farmer is being affected and should help in proffering solutions to the problems.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT